Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing The Relationship Between Hotspots Of Lead And Hotspots Of Crime, Kimberly L. Barrett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous medical and environmental toxicology studies have established a link between lead (Pb) exposure, crime, and delinquency. In human environments, lead pollution- like crime- is unequally distributed, creating lead hot spots. In spite of this, studies of crime hotspots have routinely focused on traditional sociological predictors of crime, leaving environmental predictors of crime like lead and other neurotoxins relatively unaddressed. This study attends to this gap in the literature by asking a very straightforward research question: Is there a relationship between hotspots of lead and hotspots of crime? Furthermore, what is the nature and extent of this relationship? Lastly, is …

A Fresher Law: Amending The Florida Right To Farm Act To Include Urban Micro Farming As A Key Initiative To Promote Sustainability, Food Access, And Environmental Justice For Low-Income Communities, Cameryn Rivera

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Knowledge, Attitudes And Practices Of Environmental Justice In Higher Education, Marjorie M. Nussbaum

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Research suggests that issues of environmental justice are not being routinely included in the curriculum of the K-12 classroom and that teachers in those grades do not feel prepared to teach it. Likewise, little has been written about the addition of these topics to higher education coursework, leaving the question of inclusion at this level of education as well. This apparent lacuna may point to at least one reason why K-12 teachers are neither knowledgeable about environmental justice nor prepared to teach it. To discover the current state of inclusion in higher education, a mixed methods study was conducted to …

Settler Colonialism And Reclamation: Where American Indian Law And Natural Resources Law Meet, Sarah Krakoff

Publications

Three hours west of Phoenix, Arizona, the Colorado River Indian Tribes (“CRIT”), a federally recognized tribe that includes over 3,700 enrolled members of Mohave, Chemehuevi, Navajo, and Hopi descent, occupies a reservation nearly 300,000 acres in size. The CRIT was one of five tribes to have its water rights confirmed in the landmark case of Arizona v. California, and therefore has senior rights to 719,248 acre-feet of Colorado River water, nearly one-third of Arizona’s allocation. How the CRIT came to be a single federally recognized tribe composed of members from four indigenous peoples located on lands that were a fraction …

The Moral Layers Of Fracking: From Basic Rights And Obligations To Human Flourishing, Angela L. Hotaling

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As it is currently being discussed, hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is the unconventional method of drilling and extracting oil and natural gas. Fracking starts at the earth’s surface where the technology is created and the sites are constructed. The process continues downward: drills pierce thousands of feet vertically and then horizontally underground. Then, millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals (referred to as “fracking fluid” or “slick water”) are pumped at high pressure through the pipe so as to fracture shale deposits and release gas or oil. Whether to allow fracking and its associated industrial activity is …

What Does Environmental Justice Mean In An Era Of Global Climate Change?, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The 1990s saw the emergence of the issue of environmental justice – the disproportionate exposure of low-income and minority communities to environmental hazards - into the U.S. political sphere. The 2000s saw the emergence of global climate change as a political concern. Neither has led to significant legislation at the federal level, and thus old laws designed for different purposes are being utilized with decidedly mixed results.

This article addresses the confluence of environmental justice and global climate change. The two interact in complex ways, as do the approaches to dealing with them both.

The magnitude of the climate challenge …

A Modeling Investigation Of Human Exposure To Select Traffic-Related Air Pollutants In The Tampa Area: Spatiotemporal Distributions Of Concentrations, Social Distributions Of Exposures, And Impacts Of Urban Design On Both, Haofei Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing vehicle dependence in the United States has resulted in substantial emissions of traffic-related air pollutants that contribute to the deterioration of urban air quality. Exposure to urban air pollutants trigger a number of public health concerns, including the potential of inequality of exposures and health effects among population subgroups. To better understand the impact of traffic-related pollutants on air quality, exposure, and exposure inequality, modeling methods that can appropriately characterize the spatiotemporally resolved concentration distributions of traffic-related pollutants need to be improved. These modeling methods can then be used to investigate the impacts of urban design and transportation management …

Ecopsychology And Race : An Exploratory Study, Luke B. Woodward

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

While ecopsychology has brought critical attention to the relationship between the natural environment and the human psyche, very little has been written about how race and racism shape our experience of the natural world. This qualitative study asked the following central question: How are race and racism relevant to ecopsychology in theory and practice? Twelve semistructured interviews were conducted with a racially diverse group of ecopsychologists, environmental justice activists and spiritual leaders. Interview data emphasized the importance of employing a broad definition of ecopsychology that encompasses not only the relationship between psyche and nature, but the relationship between psyche, nature …

Risk, Vulnerability, And Hazards: The Industrial Canal And The Lower Ninth Ward, Jerry V. Graves Jr.

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify, analyze, and describe the social outcomes that may be affected by the environmental risks generated by infrastructure projects; to examine the ways in which vulnerability and exposure to hazards may increase risk in neighborhoods over time; and to examine the implications of addressing the exacerbation of exposure to natural hazards within the traditional environmental justice framework. The Industrial Canal and Lower Ninth Ward were selected as the subjects of this case study because the canal has existed on the perimeter of the neighborhood for nearly one century, isolating Lower Ninth Ward residents …

End Of The Line: Tracking The Commodity Chain Of The Electronic Waste Industry, Jacquelynn A. Doyon

Dissertations

This study examines the transfer of electronic waste (e-waste) from core to peripheral nations, specifically coastal nations in Africa. The theoretical perspective marries green criminology with world systems theory in examining the ways in which marginalized populations bear the burden of hazardous waste disposal across the globe. The study is comparative, looking at legislation in the United States as well as international legislation and enforcement, and also employs case study methodology, contrasting e-waste disposal in Nigeria and Ghana. The final intent of this research is to determine whether or not the violation of national and/or international legislation regarding the transfer …

“Offsetting” Crisis? - Climate Change Cap-And-Trade Need Not Contribute To Another Financial Meltdown , Victor B, Flatt

Pepperdine Law Review

In 2009, the promise of a comprehensive federal cap and trade bill to address climate change fell apart. At least in part, this was due to the fears that exotic 'carbon' financial instruments might cause more financial crises. As California launches it economy wide carbon trading system, and other regional systems and the even possibly the EPA consider cap and trade, it is important to revisit what, if anything, about carbon denominated financial instruments might lead to financial market problems. The most problematic of the instruments, offsets, can be designed to lessen financial risk from underlying asset failure.

Cumulative Risk And A Call For Action In Environmental Justice Communities, H. P. Hynes, Russ Lopez

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Health disparities, social inequalities, and environmental injustice cumulatively affect individual and community vulnerability and overall health; yet health researchers, social scientists and environmental scientists generally study them separately. Cumulative risk assessment in poor, racially segregated, economically isolated and medically underserved communities needs to account for their multiple layers of vulnerability, including greater susceptibility, greater exposure, less preparedness to cope, and less ability to recover in the face of exposure. Recommendations for evidence-based action in environmental justice communities include: reducing pollution in communities of highest burden; building on community resources; redressing inequality when doing community-based research; and creating a screening framework …

Environmental Justice & Sociology, Brenna E. Regan

Honors Scholar Theses

This thesis compared the patterns influencing the creation of Native American reservations and the prison industrial complex in the United States. I argue that the country is controlled by people who create a physical and socio-political environment that caters to their certain positionality, adversely effecting and pushing marginalized groups into confined, controlled spaces in their own home. Ultimately, environmental justice, or equal control of people over their environment, is a vital factor in ending structural and physical violence against marginalized groups in the United States.

Tripping With Stephen Gaskin: An Exploration Of A Hippy Adult Educator, Gabriel Patrick Morley

Dissertations

For the last 40 years, Stephen Gaskin has been an adult educator on the fringe, working with tens of thousands of adults in the counterculture movement in pursuit of social change regarding marijuana legalization, women’s rights, environmental justice issues and beyond. Gaskin has written 11 books about his experiences teaching and learning with adults outside the mainstream, yet, he is virtually unknown in the field of adult education. He lists his religion as hippy; he is a member of the Counterculture Hall of Fame (inducted 2004), a convicted felon, a United States Marine, a Korean War combat veteran, and a …

Panhe At The Crossroads: Toward An Indigenized Environmental Justice Theory, Dina Gilio-Whitaker

American Studies ETDs

Through a case study of the protection of a Native American sacred site from the development of a road through it in southern California, this study argues that environmental justice (EJ) for Native peoples encompasses far more than the protection of marginalized people from disproportionate rates of detrimental health effects of industry. Mainstream environmental justice discourse is troubled when it centers indigenous peoples' histories, differentiated political status, and epistemologies in EJ analytical frameworks. Viewing EJ through the lens of settler colonialism allows for an analysis that broadens the scope of what environmental justice means for indigenous peoples by examining the …

Law's Slow Violence: A Review Of Rob Nixon's "Slow Violence And The Environmentalism Of The Poor" (Hup, 2010), Dayna Nadine Scott

Comparative Research in Law & Political Economy

With gripping urgency, Rob Nixon’s book "Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor" seeks to reveal the “occluded relationships” between transnational economic actors and the things that tie them to particular places, such as labour, land, resources and commodity dynamics. He brings into view the bodies caught in the middle – those that have been raced and erased, made invisible, and wiped away -- by exposing the violence perpetrated against them across time and space. Nixon’s work is a broad synthesis of a seemingly disparate set of literatures in post-colonial studies, eco-criticism and literary studies. His arresting narrative engages …

Arctic Justice: Addressing Persistent Organic Pollutants, Elizabeth Burleson

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article recommends enhanced governance of persistent organic pollutants through incentives to develop environmentally sound, climate friendly technologies as well as caution in developing the Arctic. It highlights the toxicity challenges presented by POPs to Arctic people and ecosystems.

Just Places: Creating A Space For Place In Environmental Justice, Damayanti Banergee

Societies Without Borders

This paper explores how discourses on sense of place and cultural heritage inform environmental justice conflicts. I argue that while economic distribution remains the overarching frame within environmental justice scholarship, cultural entitlement concerns are rarely discussed in the literature. I argue that environmental justice scholarship can draw upon place and cultural research to explore how cultural entitlement claims can be incorporated in environmental justice. I draw upon place literature to propose a three-dimensional typology of place. I call these three dimensions – political place, cultural place, and moral place. The proposed typology allows us to examine how discourses of place …

The Legal Roadmap For Environmental Sustainability In Africa: Expansive Participatory Rights And International Environmental Justice, Alali Tamuno

Dissertations & Theses

The primary goal of this study is to strengthen the participatory environmental rights model in Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and similar regional provisions and to promote International Environmental Justice. The first part of the argument in this dissertation is that the three pillars of participatory environmental rights in Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and similar regional provisions need to be strengthened with a fourth environmental rights pillar in the form of a right of access to broad environmental education, which includes anti-corruption education, especially public sector corruption, in order …

Rustbelt Theater: Children's Environmental Justice Narratives From South Elyria, Oh, Lissette Lorenz

Honors Papers

Children's knowledge of their eco-social environment is rarely privileged in environmental literature. Their voices help to broaden conceptions of environmental justice, to the benefit of both the environmental justice movement and the emerging discipline of environmental studies. In this community-based research project conducted in partnership with Save Our Children, an afterschool/summer enrichment center, in South Elyria, Ohio, third and fourth grade children utilized Theater of the Oppressed techniques to create an environmental justice narrative in the form of an original play. The goal of Theater of the Oppressed is for participants to dramatically analyze real-life oppressions/obstacles/challenges they face and act …

The Second Annual Environmental Law And Justice Symposium Issue, Randall S. Abate

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Environmental Justice With Chinese Characteristics: Recent Developments In Using Environmental Public Interest Litigation To Strengthen Access To Environmental Justice, Jingjing Liu

Florida A & M University Law Review

China's unprecedented economic growth and rapid urbanization in the past three decades has exerted a heavy toll on the country's environment. Set against the backdrop of China's daunting environmental challenges, this article will first discuss how the environmental justice issue manifests itself on Chinese soil and how its evolvement differs from the American experience. This discussion will be followed by an analysis on how environmental public interest litigation, inspired by citizen suits in the U.S., has been fermenting in China and advocated by environmentalists as a new approach to broaden and strengthen access to environmental justice. The article will then …

Calling For Justice In The Goldfields Of Tanzania, Madoshi H. Makene, Jody Emel, James T. Murphy

Geography

Tanzania is the third largest gold exporter in Africa, thanks in part to the liberalization of the mining sector which started in the early 1990s. Neoliberal mining reforms promised a win-win situation in which government, investors and local host communities would benefit through export earnings, profits, local employment, andcorporate social responsibility initiatives (e.g., the building of schools and clinics). While the rising price of gold and foreign investments in mining activities have delivered on some of these promises, many residents in mining regions have not benefited socioeconomically. Worse still, their communities have unjustly borne the brunt of the environmental, social, …

Scale And Justice In Water Allocation, Marian J. Patrick

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Water allocation is a fundamental part of water resources management. Water allocation is often a contested process because it involves multiple uses and users of water. Issues of justice arise when resources are, or are perceived to be, in short supply. When water is allocated the rules for the distribution of the resource may result in just outcomes for some stakeholders but may create injustices for other stakeholders. Issues of scale thus form an important component of water allocation. This thesis draws from an amalgam of ideas on justice, scale and water management and aims to present a conceptual framework …

Sustainability As A Means Of Improving Environmental Justice, Patricia E. Salkin, John C. Dernbach, Donald A. Brown

Scholarly Works

This article explains why environmental justice provides much of the foundation for sustainable development, and shows how sustainability can improve our ability to achieve environmental justice. The article first explains a basic but often unrecognized truth about environmental policy: environmental pollution and degradation, sooner or later, harms humans. Both sustainable development and environmental justice respond to this problem, though in somewhat different ways. Sustainable development, however, suggests a broader set of tools to address this problem than are often employed for environmental justice. The article shows how four broad approaches — more and better sustainability options, law for sustainability, visionary …

Mountains Of Injustice : Social And Environmental Justice In Appalachia, Michele Morrone, Geoffrey L. Buckley

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Research in environmental justice reveals that low-income and minority neighborhoods in our nation’s cities are often the preferred sites for landfills, power plants, and polluting factories. Those who live in these sacrifice zones are forced to shoulder the burden of harmful environmental effects so that others can prosper. Mountains of Injustice broadens the discussion from the city to the country by focusing on the legacy of disproportionate environmental health impacts on communities in the Appalachian region, where the costs of cheap energy and cheap goods are actually quite high.

Through compelling stories and interviews with people who are fighting for …

Health Worker Experiences With Environmental Pollution : Health In Urban Targeted Community : A Study Of Pollution And Clinicians' Experiences And Attitudes Towards It In Urban Low-Income Communities And Communities Of Color, Leslie B. Bosworth

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

Research suggests that exposure to pollution can impact people's health, and that there are more chances for exposure in some urban low-income communities or communities of color. The purpose of the study is to explore whether social service oriented clinicians consider whether their clients are exposed to pollution, how large of a problem the believe pollution is for their clients, and what actions they and their clients have taken to protect against pollution. A second purpose is to assess whether clinicians view pollution as product of discrimination. A third purpose is to see if pollution is indeed higher in lower-income …

Looking Backward From The Year 2099: Ecozoic Reflections On The Future, Samuel Alexander

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

Looking Backward from the Year 2099: Ecozoic Reflections on the Future

Abstract by Samuel Alexander

Story, myth, and narrative played a central role in Thomas Berry’s writings. He told new stories about the Universe and our place in it, stories not only about where we have been and where we seem to be going, but also stories about where we could go, if only we exercised our freedom in different ways. Inspired by Berry, in this paper I have dared to experiment with story, by attempting to look back on the 21st century from the vantage point of the year …

Evolving From Dominion To Communion: How Legal Rights For Nature Can Exist In Balance With Individual Property Rights In A Global Commons, Dan Leftwich

Environmental and Earth Law Journal (EELJ)

Abstract coming soon.

Food & Shelter: Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Developments In California And Access To Grocery Stores, Darci Coleen Palmer

Master's Theses

Since the mid-century proliferation of public housing, policy makers and environmental justice advocates have exposed the fact that geographically and economically isolated public housing sites are ultimately detrimental to residents and communities. In recent years, more progressive housing policies have emphasized the importance of site location in the success of housing programs. This study explores the intersection of affordable housing policy and “food desert” research, by assessing the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program in California, with specific attention to the grocery store category within the Site Amenities section. Since the inception of the LIHTC program in 1986, the California …